William C. Cockerham is Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the Center for Social Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (USA). He is President of the Research Committee on Health Sociology of the International Sociological Association and a current member of the Editorial Board of the American Sociological Review. His recent books include Social Causes of Health and Disease (2007), Medical Sociology, 11th edition (2010), and the co-authored Health and Globalization (2010).